On my part…

In case you’ve been following my blog, this will be my last post here on friendster blog (due to some reasons :)). However, you can track my future post here. (http://onmypart.blogspot.com)

Good luck to all in 2007!

For the first time in 6 years, I’ve successfully gain weight!! :).. All thanks to my daily chocolate intakes. But of course, not everyday is Sunday.. and what comes up, will sooner or later comes down.. and so it happened. The ’sweet’ smile that always comes together while having myself standing on the scale didn’t last long. It slowly fades away. Now here’s one new thing that I have to worry about - how to maintain my current weight. Hehe.. :p.. It proves to be harder than I thought. Gosh! The temptation is just too high. Imagine having a fridge fills with tasty chocolates and it stands just 5 steps away from you!! :).. Well I did try NOT to purchase any of ‘it’ anymore. But again it didn’t last long especially now that Coles is having its kind christmas promotions. Alamakx2.. The other that also proves to be difficult is to stick to my weekend exercise plan. Well, these certainly are clear evidences as to how difficult it can be in order to achieve steadfastness (istiqamah) in every POSITIVE aspects in our daily lives (for eg, studying, exercising and perform night prayer).

Although I am not the best person to say this, but to all my friends, please take care of yourself. It is really scary knowing that your friends or realtives who are as young as 20s have diseases like high blood preasure or diabetes. Hereditary is no longer the only case. Anyone has the same probability of getting these dangerous diseases unless we start working for healthy lifestyle.

Good luck to me.. :p…

When you were kids, have you ever wonder how huge ship can float whereas we human that barely 1% of its weight can easily get drowned? Well I have and I know Yaby didn’t (Yaby told me that he figured it out as soon as he thinks about it (eksyen laa tu :p)). My other favourite question was, why human have to sleep (kan best if we could play all day long)? (Although I found the questions quite amusing, as far as I could remember, I never mentioned any of these two questions to my parents. Until now, I can’t figure out why I did not.)

About eight years later, after my geography teacher taught us how to calculate the world time difference, I asked a silly question that made the whole class laugh, "if we travel from Malaysia to US, do our watch automatically change to the exact local time on its own?". Hehe.. well give me a break! I never travel on an aeroplane before :p. That’s also when I realized that it would be great challange to invent a watch that has this kind of functionality (I know we have it now).

A year later (as its getting closer to millenium), there had been much said on extraterrestial. I remember reading an article that said a country was working on a million dollar project trying to find a replacement for the planet earth. That was when I thought to myself, "if we can ‘bring’ water on Mars then we might be able to live on Mars". Why water? No idea. I didn’t know where it came from. My subconscious mind must have pick it up from some where. So I asked my chemistry teacher, "can we easily get water by combining oxygen and hydrogen gas?" because in my mind, I was imagining of bringing a huge volume of oxygen and hydrogen to planet Mars before KabooM - water!! Because of that, I can’t really remember my teacher’s given answer :p.

There was also one time when I was asked if alien do exist in Bermuda Triangle. I’d answered no based on the fact that I just don’t believe that alien exist. But I did relate my answer to orang bunian (silly me). Hehe.. Why? Because it is stated clearly in the Quran, there is no other creature created by God in this whole universe that could surpass the human (angel and jinn) intelligence. Simple.

And there were many other occasions where questions kept ringing in my mind. But as I grew older, I realized that it has slowed down a little bit. This proves how much I am wasting the capacity of my brain. I remember a talk where he/she said, how people nowadays study less compare to people in the past. He/She showed a picture comprising of two triangles. One was a triangle that its peak on the top and another triangle with its peak at the bottom. And so he/she said pointing to the first triangle, "When you are in school, you learn a lot of things. And when you start doing you degree, you’ll only learn subjects that are constraint to your chosen area. As you finally reach here (pointing to the peak of the triangle), you are doing your PhD ". "However, in the past, they start from here (pointing at the peak of the second triangle). And as they grew older, not only they gained knowledge in science, they also grasped knowledge in arts, language, astronomy and etc. This is how we supposed to achieved…"

Can we?

The time of the year where muslims from all over the world gather to perform the fifth pillar of Islam has come again. Alhamdulillah, this year Mak Ngah got her chance. To Mak Ngah, have a save journey and we pray that you will earn Hajj mabrur.

Also, I would like to share a beautiful nasheed by Zain Bikha titled the Mountains of Makkah. You can check the nasheed by clicking here.

Lately, I’ve been using lots of photo editing software in my spare time. Today, while I was ‘trimming’ my cheeks size (in a photo) by 10% (:p hehe), I recall how I used to get low marks for my art folio. Every semester, the arts subject will pull my average marks down. I still remember how I always wanted to improve my art folio marks. There was one time I gave my very best shot but it ended up just as average. At that time, I realized that arts is indeed a very expensive subject. Those who used beautiful coloured papers or has fancy lace with coloured beeds and buttons or use spiral binding will get high marks. Of course, if there were painting, those who used Bun*o watercolour brand would get better result compare to Pan*a brand, as to Lun* colour pencils to Chi*, as to oil based crayon to others, as to get pictures from magazines compare to a primary school book, and the list goes on and on… Money did not come easy for me at that time. I rather spend my RM3.50 per week on foods than 3 pieces of coloured paper :p. Anyway, because of that, I pledged to get high marks in other subjects to leverage the final result. And it was worth it! Of course, I would say that another reason for my unfortunate outcome with the art subject could be because I just wasn’t born with a brush in my hand like Chezel! :p

By the end of my photo editing session, I fascinated just how much computers nowadays can do. I remember how I used to think to myself "am I really going to be stupid if I didn’t use this computer thing?" when daddy’s family side and school kept talking about the importance of computer. My aunts didn’t take long to convince my dad. Few weeks later, daddy bought us a computer. Then he bought lots of computers book and started to give us his personal training :). Daddy has always wanted to give best education to his children. For example, because daddy couldn’t afford to put any of us to private tuitions, he taught us himself. When he was outstation, he would post maths questions together with a warning letter saying that he would want everything to be done before he came back. Because of that, I used to think that daddy was a very fierce dad! Hehe.. Not anymore. Without daddy’s perseverance and ummi’s patience, I think all of us (siblings) would not be where we are today. Back to the computer thing. It was soon that DO* was replaced by a more user friendly operating system. It is far far more easier to use. And to be honest, I personally think that it is kinda a waste to send kids to computer class at ‘that’ early stage. Who used Lot*s anymore? Hehe…

Always remember that there are many ways to get to what you wish for… all you need is lots and lots of effort…

Hafiy + Yaby + Chrismass tree = Wahhh comelnyer!!

Today, Yaby and I went to visit Rina and her new born baby boy Nazhan Luqman.

Oh yes, in case you’ve realized, Yaby is wearing his favorite shirt - again (tone just like in the Forest Gump movie). Trust me, it’s not like he’s only one t-shirt. It just happen to be that TODAY he was NOT wearing his other t-shirts that are hanging almost helplessly in the wardrobe. Ahakzzz…. :p

To Rina and Br Aidil, congratulations! Dah jadi mama and papa dah korang. :p

I met her in person during her public speech for the Islamic Enhancement Week 2003 at Southampton University. If I’m not mistaken, it was only months since she reverted. I got an email from a friend containing Yvonne Ridley’s speech at EWAMY, Cairo, which I think worth to be read by all of us.

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The Arabic language is one of the cornerstones of Islam, as we have heard  today from our brother, so I do apologize in advance that this is one of the  many areas of Islam I’ve yet to  master. Islamic ally, I am very young, having reverted in 2003. And while I have much to learn I can identify with the frustrations shared by young Muslims  today. I know 9/11 had a huge impact on the world, but it wasn’t really the start of  something? It was the continuation of a legacy of US imperialism and its fear of Islam.

Just over ten years ago, fit, young Muslims across the globe flooded into Bosnia to help their brothers and  sisters fight for their survival against the Serbs who were carrying out a  genocide sanctioned by the silence of a watching world.  The jihad brought together Muslims from all nationalities, status and  culture. All were united; even those who could not travel to fight helped in  other ways such as fund-raising, public awareness events and demonstrations. The impact was to stop the genocide. Western intervention, when it happened, came only after it was apparent that that the Bosnian Muslims were  heading for victory. The establishment of an Islamic state deep in the heart of  Europe was simply too much to bear and so the  West intervened. This is not my conclusion, but US President  Bill Clinton admitted it in his autobiography.

This fear of Islam has now evolved in the last 10 years to such an extent that the blood of our brothers and sisters is now flowing like rivers across  Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and we saw recently what happened to  Lebanon.   I  have walked through many of those killing fields and let me tell you the  twisted, blown up limbs of our Muslim brothers and sisters look exactly like  those pulled from the rubble of the Twin Towers. Yet the message of today is quite clear. Muslim blood is a cheap commodity.  Meanwhile tens of thousands of innocent Muslims continue to be tortured  in far away dungeons and cages in Guantanamo Bay, Bagram airbase in Afghanistan,  Abu Ghraib, Diego Garcia and ghost prisons throughout the world. Others are tortured in Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria and even here in Egypt. Brothers  are being tortured at the behest and request of the United  States.

So what sort of message does that send out to our young  people? They read about the heroic exploits of Salahudddin Ayyoubi, Khalid bin Walid, Tariq bin Ziad and listen intently to stories of courage and
bravery  about our beloved Prophet Mohamed. Do you know, five years ago I had never even heard of The Prophet, but now I would give my last drop of blood to protect his name, his  honor and his memory.  Even in death he continued to show how strong he was by uniting the Ummah in protest at those vile cartoons from Denmark.   Our modern day heroes include those two sixties martyrs Malcolm X and  Sayyid Qutb, both whose writings have helped define me as a  Muslim.  These are the sort of role models and influences our youth need to  follow, but instead they receive confused and mixed  messages. One minute they are told the fear no one but Allah  while  the next minute they are told to dilute their Islam and keep their heads  down.

Since the events of 9-11, there has been an unrelenting campaign launched to change Islam into something more palatable to Western society.  The vision is a secular and cultural Islam at peace with the world  through her submission to her oppressors rather than to Allah; an Islam devoid of jihad, Shariah and khilafah? The very things we are commanded by Allah to  implement in order to establish Allah’s deen on this earth.   And it is in evidence everywhere I look. Hijab are being ripped off the  heads of my sisters in Tunisia, France and Turkey. Sisters  in Holland and Germany are also  in the firing line.

And in Britain, we have Jack Straw, the  former British Foreign Secretary who questioned the veil? I am not having a  white, middle-aged man telling me how to dress. Keep out of my wardrobe and that  of every sister on this planet.  I pick up the newspapers in Cairo today to discover  the Minister of Culture has called the wearing of the veil a regression.   How dare he say that? Why are the men in Egypt standing  by and doing nothing to silence him? He is insulting the honor and dignity of  every Muslim woman who chooses to cover.

Farooq Hosni is a disgrace to Islam? What sort of message does he send out to our young people with his weasel words?   The nikab, like the veil, like the hijab has become a symbol of a  rejection of those negative Western lifestyles like drug-taking, binge-drinking  and promiscuity. It is a statement telling the West we don’t want to be like you.

These Arabs who choose to be more western than Westerners make me laugh? Do they realize how pathetic they look in the eyes of the rest of the world?  This Minister should be sacked from his post for dishonoring every sister who  chooses to cover.  I  suppose he hides behind such descriptions as moderate? Again what sort of  message does that send to our young people? If we ask them to be moderate does that not suggest that there is  something wrong with Islam that it needs to be toned down, diluted? The last time I came to Cairo I was called an extremist by none other  than the Sheikh of Al Azhar Sheikh Tantawi. The reason for this? Because, I  would not shake his hand.   What is a moderate and what is an extremist? I really don’t know. I am a simple Muslim. I follow no scholars or sects? I merely  follow The Prophet and the  Sunnah. Does that make me an extremist?

I once said being a Muslim is a bit like being pregnant. You are or you are not.  Whoever heard of anyone being moderately or extremely pregnant? Islam has been under attack for 1400 years and we should have learned by  now to put our trust in no one but Allah. Yet there are those who continue to  kiss the hand which slaps them.  I am afraid that we can no longer put our trust in to  someone just because they might wear Islamic dress or have a long beard? I  notice quite a few long beards in here today, but I am not referring to you,  brothers.  There are those Muslim leaders who claim to guide and protect us but not  all of them have our interests at heart. Our young people are going to have to be very  discerning since the events of 9/11, Bali, Madrid and the London Bombings, to  name a few.

There are individuals who for years rallied the masses to stand up for justice and support mujahideen groups around the world and now some have become  embarrassingly silent while others condemn armed jihad, portraying mujahideen as terrorists and extremists who follow a distorted version of Islam.   In some ways we are all to blame. Our greatest shame has been our silence  while martyrdom operations in Palestine and other occupied lands have been  condemned as acts of terror as witnessed in 9/11 and the July 7 bombings.   Our young people have to be taught that what is happening in Palestine, Kashmir,  Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan is legitimate resistance against a  brutal military occupation, while crimes like 9/11 and the London bombings are blatant terrorism.

Equating the two only betrays our brothers and sisters who have no other option but to fight or face being wiped off the face of this planet. The new slaves of the West criticize Islamist parties and governance by shariah. Even student and youth movements which consistently campaigned for Palestine and Iraq  have suddenly lost their tongues in a bid to be seen as Moderate.

In Britain we have an invasion of what I call the Happy Clappies. They are being flown in by the Government from the  US, Canada, Yemen and Mauritania to  preach a diluted form of Islam.  They are poisoning the minds of our youth and we  should be very wary before the Happy Clappies spread across the world.   They attack Wahhabi groups in the most cynical manner? Some even misuse  nasheeds, and I am deeply afraid that the Happy Clappies are infecting our  nasheeds with the excesses of western pop culture.

The end result of all this has been a dilution of the deen of Allah, a weak and pacified Islam willing to accept the status quo in which Muslims are  oppressed and subjugated; an Islam in which Muslims are content to sing and  dance the night away to nasheeds, to concentrate on bettering their life in the  West and to condemn the actions of their brothers and sisters who courageously  resist occupation and oppression with whatever they  have. Even making dua for them now has become a crime? How long before we are
told not to even pray for the mujahideen?

One of the greatest military general the world has known, Salahuddin  Ayyubi, the liberator of al-Quds, was once asked why he didn’t smile. He answered back that how could he smile while he knowing that Masjid al-Aqsa,  remained under Crusader occupation.

I  wonder what he would make of the state of the world today. I wonder what advice  he would give our youth?  This is a world where Arab leaders belly-danced  shamelessly in front of America while handing Iraq over on a  plate.  The same Arab leaders look the other way as our beautiful Palestine is continually raped and sodomized, and that  other great daughter of the Arab world, Lebanon? Where was the Arab world  when she was so brutally assaulted?  And the war drums are beating again. Not only is the  whole world watching, but so are our children, our youth, and our future.   We must nature them, and inspire them with tales of the Prophet and the Sahaba.

As long as the Ummah continues to throw up figures like Khalid bin Walid,  Salahuddin Ayyoubi, Sayyid Qutb and Malcolm X all is not lost. The more we are oppressed by the tyrants the more we will fight back.  That is the nature of Islam.  And this is the Islam our youth need to follow, be  guided by and inspired.  Farooq Hosni and his ilk are pale imitations of real  men? They have castrated themselves in a pathetic attempt to become more Western  than the Westerners.  He will be consigned to the history books with barely a sentence while  the courage and heroic resistance of our brothers and sisters will go down in  chapters.

A  rapidly increasing number of Muslim youth are now realizing that no matter how  hard they compromise their deen to blend in with the wider society, when things  go sour, they will be treated with suspicion.  The more we are told to forget Shariah, khilafah and jihad, the more Muslims will pay the blood price to uphold these  values.  The jihad we are witnessing in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya is something noble, a just war against injustice and tyranny. The actions f the jihadists pose absolutely no threat to the West or  Western lifestyles and their resistance is not only justified but embraced and encouraged by international law.

The real religious extremists who pose the greatest threat to radicalizing our youth are the Christian Fundamentalists in the White House and  Downing Street. Bush and Blair have become  al-Qaeda’s finest recruiting officers.  More and younger Muslims are waking up with the realization that it is not terrorism or extremism that is being targeted but  Islam itself.   It is up to the Ummah to lead and inspire our youth, just as The Prophet led and inspired millions and continues to do so. And the  first lesson we must teach our youth is to fear none but Allah.

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How I wish to have the same burning spirit… insyaAllah..

Today, I had a long chat with Kak Mis. She reminded me of how interesting life as undergraduate. Hehe..

Anyway, among the topic that we’d covered was recalling our friends name. Yup! I have indeed serious problems recalling people’s name. Let alone their full names! The one that Kak Mis and I had difficulties was with Bugs’s (Bugs, if you are reading this, wari ne! :p).

Through out my life, I’ve heard various, wicked and hillarious nicknames. Tell me, how on earth Sarah becomes ‘Pejang’, Aini becomes ‘Bugs’, Azam becomes ‘Ah Tong’, Azrul becomes ‘Ghoyye’, Nora becomes ‘Noghi’, Yasir becomes ‘Yaby’ :p hehe.. I wonder what would it be should I have one. Will it be hmm..hmm.. *long silence*.. can’t think of any.

Of course, behind each nickname lies a story. Some were interesting. Others were mere coincidence. Which ever it maybe, I am sure it has been part of your life. On my part, it has really ’spicen-up’ my memory :). I do have a small suggestion though. Just make sure that the nickname you’ve about to get/give does not lack of decency (you know what I mean.. :p ).

Bugs! I like Bugs ‘Bunny’ too!!

We got a letter from our agent stated that they would increase our house rent by $20 per week. The total? - $210 for a single bedroom house! That’s murder! At first we wanted to keep the deal for a complete 52 weeks. (I think I did mention in my previousx2 post that the rent here in Australia is calculated weekly. Hence, I have to pay approximately $850 per month. Oppss! You’re right. Yaby has to pay $850 per month.) Before we signed up the papers, the man convinced us that the price would remain same for at least another year. Gosh! I should have known better!

Later that day (Friday), Yaby sent an email to our agent requesting to negotiate the price. On Monday, I received a call from my agent and they appologized saying that blaa..blaa..blaa and agreed to raise only by $10 per week. Nonetheless, I did not felt that..that contemptuous mirth I’ve been expecting for. The truth is, regardless of what they say, I’m thinking of moving to another house anyway. On the other hand, Yaby thinks otherwise.. :(. However, yesterday, I successfully made Yaby walked almost 3Km to check on a new house at a different location. It’s a little bit far from the train station but with cheaper rent price and has two bedrooms.

On our way back home, we stopped at a quiet spot by the brisbane river. It was a beatiful scene. I didn’t expect to see anything like that. If only I haven’t left my mobile at home. What’s more interesting was, there were three white parrots resting at the same spot. They were so cute! (I get this photo from the web :p) But the thing that hit me the most was the serene feeling that engulfed me. In the past three weeks, I’ve been woking, exercising and playing indoor. Boring isn’t it! I just hope that we all could spend more time outdoor. It really brings benefits to both your mind and body..

Like azam’s sms says, "cmie (Chemie) dah 24 tahun.." Yup, another year has ended for me. I’m touched by all the wishes and messages I’ve received. Thanks a bunch. Luckily I have stocked up 5 boxes of tissues. I knew I’ll be using lots :p.. This feeling I had right now, although a little better, was no different than the one I had on my 19th birthday i.e. my first birthday in the UK. I had always been surrounded by ‘loud’ family members. There will be Chezel, Sitot and Adzam fighting over whether it will be Domino, Pizza or McDonald. If there were cakes, Chezel will be showering with her usual temperament on why we bought the wrong type of cake, "kek ni mana sedap.." :p. It was a beatiful scene :). Last year, I celebrated my birthday with Yaby’s family. Even though it is not as loud as my family, there were many to be with. I miss all of them a lot..

I had always take birthdays as an chance to spent time together especially now that we are busy with our work and other family. My advice (although i know most of you already knew), family always comes first. And my other advice, never forget to let your family members know how much each and everyone of them mean to you…